Hardware is advancing at an incredible pace. Capacity for personal computers may now be measured in terabytes, random access memory (RAM) may be measured in gigabytes, and processing speeds are well in the gigahertz range—something unimaginable a mere decade ago.
Unfortunately, the processes imposed on hardware are advancing at an incredible pace as well. Today's computers backup more information than computers of the past, search through larger hard drives to look for more sophisticated viruses, and keep track of an ever-expanding list of applications and documents. Whether it is a virus scan, a backup operation, a request for software inventory, the processes imposed on modern hardware are quite demanding. Despite the advances in hardware, these processes may render a computer unusable. There is a need, therefore, for an improved method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for processing information.